BFiQM
by ohsheilz
Summary: Three years after Elena is put under the sleeping spell, Stefan wakes up Damon from hibernation. What caused him to sentence himself to a 60 year sleep? What happens after he wakes up? Bonenzo/Bamon
1. The Date

**Best Friends in Quotation Marks (but originally "Best Friends" but you can't have quotation marks in your title lol)**

 **The Date**

"You said we'd be done an hour ago!"

The edge in Bonnie's voice could be heard all the way down the hallway of the dormitories. She walked as fast and as hard as her legs could carry her back to her room with Damon close behind, matching her pace effortlessly.

The two were lucky that no one ever seemed to be roaming the halls; then they would have to explain the rips and tears in Bonnie's Whitmore pullover and Damon's leather jacket, shirt, and jeans. Even worse, the blood splattered on the both of them and dried against healed wounds.

"I said maybe it'd take an hour. No one asked you to get thrown out of a window."

"And no one asked you to catch me. You let him get away and now I don't have time to shower."

Bonnie hastily opened the door to the room and walked inside, leaving Damon to close the door behind him. She swiped a wet wipe from its container and scrubbed the blood off of her face as she kicked off her shoes and started pulling clothes out of her drawers and onto her bed.

"You're mad when I don't save your life. You're mad when I do. Choose one, Bonnie, it can't be both."

Bonnie scoffed and rolled her eyes. She tossed the bloodied wet wipe away and grabbed another one, glared at Damon accusingly, and then grabbed the whole box and a fresh bra and panties before heading behind the changing screen.

"Maybe you should just start telling me when the appropriate time to save your life is. That'd be _really_ helpful," he called over. He peeled off his ruined jacket, grimacing in pain when he finally felt the damage taking the brunt of Bonnie's fall had caused.

"My right shoulder's dislocated," he said. He dropped the jacket to the floor and took a seat on the edge of Elena's- no, his- bed.

Bonnie sighed, "I'll come set it in a second."

Damon unbuttoned his top and let it fall to the floor just as Bonnie emerged, clean as she could be and wearing only her lingerie.

Damon ducked his head out of respect, but not before catching an eyeful of her lacy undergarments that barely covered her chest and rump, her flat stomach, and her smooth legs. She settled behind him to study the large, purple bruise on his back. Her fingertips brushed against his skin lightly, feeling his muscles, tracing his bones all the way down his arm until she grasped his wrist.

She slowly lifted his arm. "Ready?"

"Do it."

She snapped his arm up and his shoulder reset with an audible pop. Damon grunted in pain but the bruise already began to yellow.

"Thanks," he said, rolling his arm.

"Small price to pay for you saving my life, right?" Bonnie headed back to her bed and pulled on a navy blue, spaghetti strap dress. The chiffon hugged her torso comfortable before fanning out and stopping midway to her knees. She plopped down on the trunk at the edge of her bed and began to slip on a pair of over-the-knee socks.

Damon watched Bonnie inch the material up her calves and past her knee from the corner of his eye. She uncrossed her legs, then recrossed them with her left leg on top to put on her other sock.

"Why are you in such a rush anyways?" he asked her.

"I'm meeting someone."

"Who?"

She slid her feet into a pair of heeled boots. "…Enzo."

"Enzo who's currently conspiring with my loony bin mother, Enzo?"

"Enzo who's currently debating which side to choose Enzo, actually." She put on a cardigan that touched the back of her knees.

"So, what, you're going to flip him with the power of seduction?" He snorted loudly.

Bonnie slapped him over the head on the way to the mirror to dab on some makeup. "Don't you have something better to be doing?" She paused. "Wait this is you we're talking about."

"Ha ha. Very funny." He stood up and met Bonnie at the mirror. "What makes you think you have what it takes to be playing double agent? What if this is a trap?"

Bonnie quickly put on some mascara and slapped on a layer of lip stain. "I think I've had enough experience with double crossers to be one. And its not a trap."

"How do you know?"

Bonnie let out a loud, annoyed puff of air and turned to Damon. "Because if it is he's going to die tonight. He knows that. And we all know Enzo prefers the living world. Mkay?" She patted his right shoulder with a bit of force, making him hiss in pain.

"I'm hoping our recent hunting trip for his "adopted brother" won't be a topic of conversation."

She gave him a dubious smile. A knock came from the door and she pushed past him to open it.

"Evening gorgeous. I decided I couldn't just wait." Enzo held out a red rose to Bonnie.

She looked at him, unimpressed. "How romantic," she said dryly. "But this isn't a date-"

"Isn't it though?"

She ignored him, "-and I don't want a rose." But she accepted it anyways.

"Then I'll take it." Damon's hand covered Bonnie's to push the door all the way open and snatch the rose from Bonnie's right hand. "Since its not a date." He offered Enzo a fake smile that was not reciprocated.

"Right…" Bonnie said. She wiggled away from the pissing contest to grab her purse.

Enzo looked Damon's half naked, bloodied appearance up and down. "What happened to you?"

"Got into a fight with a bear."

"Alright, we're out of here," Bonnie said, swooping in between the two. She gently jabbed Damon in the center of his chest. "Don't wait up."

"Wasn't planning to," Damon lied.

She breezed out the door and past Enzo. "Don't worry, mate," Enzo said. "I'll take good care of her." He winked and pushed off the doorway to catch up to Bonnie.

Damon sneered at them as they walked away. They turned the corner away from his prying eyes so he cut his losses and slammed the door shut.

* * *

 **Hello dear, dear readers! Against everything I told myself I'm starting a new fic based off of season 7 spoilers and if I find myself writing longer than expected then also based off of new episodes. I hope not though. I want this to be a quick, multishot fic.**

 **And if I stick with my decisions...it'll be my last. Meaning...my other fics will go unfinished. I'm so sorry! But I'm super busy and sheesh those fics are nowhere near being finished and I just don't think I have it in me to finish.**

 **So please forgive my negligence and abandonment! And please enjoy this story!**

 **xoxoxoxoxo**


	2. The Dilemma

"I don't know if I should trust him."

They were sitting on the exact middle seat of the Whitmore's football field's bleachers. Damon had once confessed that the Mystic Falls football field was the first place he and Stefan felt like brothers since their estrangement even though Stefan only wanted to find out that Damon was back in their hometown for Katherine and Damon had "politely" declined the offer.

Whatever chance there was, Damon had ruined it and the Mystic Falls High football field was just a memory in the Salvatore brothers' conniving, betrayal-filled, s-l-o-w build back to each other; in the end frequenting football fields in the middle of the night had become a Bonnie and Damon thing, but there was a considerable lack of football throwing. She would practice old cheers on occasion and only if she was drunk.

Tonight, there was no drinking. Bonnie had started her day with a knot in her chest and a stone in her stomach. It stuck with her all day until she couldn't take it any longer and called Damon for a field session.

"How many times do you have to crash face first into the ground before you stop jumping off buildings, right?" she wondered aloud.

"You're asking me?" Damon snorted. "I've always asked myself 'how well can one really know their lover?'"

"This isn't about love, Damon."

"Then what is it about?"

"Its about friendship. Its about companionship." She patted his knee. "I know you don't have much experience with that sort of thing."

"Enzo was my friend first!"

"Was being the operative word."

He pouted instead of thinking of a comeback. They sat quietly for a minute.

"Well how well can you know a friend then. Male friend."

A white cloud puffed out when she huffed. "I don't need to know him so much as I need to know I can trust him."

"Well…how did you know you could trust me?"

Bonnie shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't. I just trusted Elena."

"Of course."

"That blind faith was just…"

"Excessive," Damon finished.

"No offense, Elena," Bonnie added.

They giggled conspiratorially together.

"That probably wasn't the best idea," Damon said.

The field echoed with Bonnie's laughter. "It really wasn't. At least not right away," she said.

"Oh, yeah?"

"I mean, it may have taken years to go through you and your…unique personality."

Damon covered his heart with his right hand. "That's the exact word I use to describe it too."

"But now I trust you more than my own mother," she said.

Damon did not look impressed. "That's not saying much."

She couldn't stop herself from smirking playfully, "Exactly."

Damon rolled his eyes and pushed Bonnie away with his elbow. She cackled every time she got back up and he started pushing her again.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" she laughed, grabbing his arm with both hands and keeping it still in her lap. Her head came to rest on his shoulder. She laced their fingers. "I trust you more than Elena."

The steady silence was interrupted by the sound of passing cars and the occasional howling of wolves. Damon kissed the top of Bonnie's head, and then rested his head against her.

"Don't tell her I said that."

"Oh, I will. And there's nothing you can do about it."

She elbowed him deep in the side with a half-hearted laugh. Even though it was a joke, even though she was used to joking about it, every now and again there was an awkward silence. It was a pill her throat couldn't always swallow- not being able to see Elena ever again when Damon could only because she would be dead. It was a strange, muddled tragedy weighing on her, especially tonight.

"Let's get out of here. Its freezing."

They stood up at the same time. Bonnie took one last look at the clouded night sky. She imagined the world without her tiny existence. The sky would remain the same, the leaves would still turn green. The world would move on from Bonnie Bennett. And she knew that was where it all ended- or was supposed to end- but there was an undertone, some secret ingredient to her death that really soured it.

"Hey," Damon said, pulling her out of her sorrowful reverie. He gently squeezed her hand and it tethered her to the moment, burning the memory into her forever. His right hand caressed her face and he leaned in to kiss her cheek, closer to the corner of her mouth. The skin Damon's lips connected with warmed instantly and stayed a hot spot on her face even after the brisk spring air wafted against her.

She held her breath as he pulled away, enamored with how rosy his lips and cheeks were against his pale skin. And his eyes were this incredible blue that smoldered against his thick frame of eyelashes. His gaze fell back onto her lips and maybe it was the existential despair in the air that made her lean in, made her crane her neck so her chin escaped the heat of her scarf, made her kiss Damon straight on the mouth.

He was a light pressure against her mouth. His fingers curled into her hair and he shifted his face to the side, pressing firmer against her mouth and slightly parted his lips. Her mouth fell into place easily.

Her eyes were closed but she still saw stars.

She became stars.

She felt full…held. Safe and rooted instead of barreling out in open space. It didn't last nearly as long as it should have. Somewhere a trash can fell over scaring Bonnie and Damon apart. They stared at each other breathless.

"Oh," Bonnie finally breathed.

She realized what the secret ingredient was.


	3. The Decision

**Hey y'all! Summer 16 has officially started! Let's celebrate with a new chapter.**

* * *

The buzzing in Damon's lips distracted him from the fluttering in hiss belly as he stared into Bonnie's wide green eyes, then her lips, then back to her eyes. He could feel her- really feel her- deep in his chest, on the balls of his feet, in the marrow of his bones.

She was heavy and thick, like sap dripping down the bark of an old tree, except he was the tree and the sap was the blood that flowed through him. He was always helplessly wading through it whenever he was in Bonnie's presence.

Tonight, it coursed through him heady and heated, boiling inside him all because of one kiss. That one kiss that grew a sweet tooth in his mouth and unleashed a craving he could not control. It created an addiction to which he would never recover.

He kissed her again before it was too late. He gently took hold of her chilled face with both hands, closed his eyes, and wrapped Bonnie's lips up into the yearning warmth of his own.

He was immune to the biting cold when he was attached to her. She was the flame reducing him to sugary syrup and each caress from her soft lips tapped his chest for more sap to the point of overflow.

He loved her.

Oh, how he loved her. Her wit. Her beautiful, crooked face. Her empathy, her grace, her stubbornness. How could he love someone so much, he wondered as she placed dizzying kisses along his jaw and cheeks.

How could she draw so much love from him so effortlessly, so efficiently, that Damon began to find it impossible to be…

Without her.

He had used a comforting kiss to her cheek to let her know she would not go from this world without someone thinking something was amiss, but now he was a man cursed with a final countdown. In the end, his sweet tooth would cause so many cavities, and he was not sure a root canal would fix the pain of it.

Damon softly pecked Bonnie's lips for the last time and another peck to the tip of her nose. She sighed quietly and buried her face in his chest, clinging to the back of his jacket. Damon committed the moment to his memory, the embracing "best friends" forever immortalized.

* * *

"Damon," Stefan called from his spot on the couch as his brother walked into the Lockwood mansion.

Damon ambled into the study room frowning and didn't even look at Stefan.

"What's wrong?" Stefan asked. He placed a thin leather bookmark inside of the novel he was reading before giving Damon his full attention.

"I think," Damon started, "that I have to go."

"Go where?"

"To Elena."

"Okay…?" Stefan said slowly. A silence flitted between the two and Damon didn't explain any further. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm going to coffin myself, Stefan," Damon answered, finally looking at his younger brother.

Stefan's eyes widened dramatically. "Why?"

Damon shook his head and dropped to a seat like a sack of rocks. "I have to. I can't…"

"Damon, whatever happened, we can fix it. You don't have to disappear."

Damon let his head fall back on the sitting chair. "This can't be fixed, Stefan."

"Maybe if you just told me what's wrong-"

Damon promptly stood back on his feet, glaring at Stefan as if his concern offended him. "You can't help me, Stefan. And you can't convince me not to leave."

Stefan's brow became heavier, if it was possible, and his mouth soured. He lifted himself off the couch with nimble ease to stand in front of the black haired Salvatore. "Don't do this."

"I have to."

"You've said that already, but haven't explained why. Why can't you just tell me? You don't think I'd understand?"

"No, Stefan, I know you'd understand far too well. But I'm not in the mood for a lecture, or some brotherly heart to heart tonight. I've got a coffin to catch."

"You're trying to do this tonight?" Stefan exclaimed.

"Not trying- doing."

They stared face to face, sizing each other up- Stefan trying to find an inkling of reason for his brother's sudden wish to mummify, and Damon searching for some sort of resignation from Stefan.

"You can't be without Elena that badly?"

Damon didn't answer. He cracked his knuckles distractedly, looking beyond Stefan to the study wall.

"What does Bonnie think about this?" Stefan threw at him.

Damon flinched. "What you'd expect from a judge-y little witch," he lied and rolled his eyes for emphasis.

"You haven't even told her."

If only Stefan didn't know his so well. Maybe he should not have come to say goodbye to him either. Realization lit up Stefan's eyes followed closely by shock.

"Damon…" Stefan started.

"Don't," Damon hissed through gritted teeth, trying to stop it.

Stefan hesitated, but continued anyways. He took a step closer to Damon as if proximity could convince him from making this mistake. "You don't have to run away," Stefan whispered conspiratorially. "It doesn't have to be this way."

"That, dear brother, is where you're wrong."

Another silence. Disappointment marred Stefan's face. "You will regret this, brother."

Damon smirked, a touch of sadness twisting it awkwardly on his otherwise perfect face. "Famous last words."

He pulled Stefan into a hug and they felt like brothers again, before the insanity Katherine brought into their lives tore them apart. He clapped him on the shoulder when he pulled away. "I'll be seeing you. Try not to get staked while I'm gone."

Stefan frowned harder and watched silently as Damon walked to the door. He stopped at the doorway and without looking back said, "Take care of her. Keep her safe."

Stefan folded his arms tightly. "I wish you would take your own advice."

"I'm asking for a favor."

"And I'm asking you not to leave. But you won't listen."

"I guess that's why you're the 'good Salvatore'. Goodbye, Saint Stefan."

And with that, he was gone.

* * *

 **All you need is a taste and it will hurt.**

 **xoxoxoxo**


	4. The Double Cross

**Oh someone asked for a chapter to this story and it just so happened I could write one (but there's no Bamon). Enjoy!  
**

 **The Double Cross**

* * *

Bonnie had dreamt about her mother…or, more specifically, her lack of a mother. It was something of a memory about a birthday party for her tenth year of life.

She had handed invitations out to her classmates at the beginning of class and by lunch she was sitting in the principal's office with Elena and Caroline. Deputy Forbes and Mrs. Gilbert filed into the office stoically and the girls fidgeted on their chairs, twisting their dirtied clothes.

"What happened?" the sheriff asked.

Elena looked at Caroline, Caroline looked at Bonnie, and Bonnie looked between the pair of mothers and daughters.

"Well?" Mrs. Gilbert asked impatiently.

Bonnie burst into tears. "It's all my fault!" she cried. "I should have never asked for a stupid birthday party!"

"What does that have to do with fighting?" Deputy Forbes asked.

Caroline cut in, "Bonnie's having a party for her birthday next month."

"She's never had a real party before," Elena piped in.

"I handed out invitations this morning," Bonnie continued.

Elena held Bonnie's hand. "Some girls on the playground were telling people they shouldn't go."

"Why?"

"Because I don't have a mom," Bonnie answered in the quietest voice. Her bottom lip trembled and more tears came, but not just from Bonnie.

Elena scrubbed tears off of her swollen cheek with the butt of her hand. "They said there wouldn't be anything good to eat and that's why Bonnie always has to buy lunch at school. They said it wouldn't be fun because all Sheila has to play with are skeleton bones."

Caroline did her best not to cry angry tears. "They said everyone would have to dress really ugly because there's no one to make Bonnie look good and it's bad manners to overdress."

Deputy Forbes sighed deeply. "And then?"

"I told them they should stick to cleaning toilets like their dads."

"Caroline…"

"Well Elena hit one of them!" Caroline cried defensively.

Mrs. Gilbert gasped, "Elena!"

Elena hunched into herself. "I didn't mean to start a fight!"

"No, you just didn't mean to get in trouble."

Deputy calmed Mrs. Gilbert with a hand on her shoulder. "Girls, we can't hit people when they're saying mean things. You tell an adult what they're saying," Caroline's mother lectured.

Elena sat up straight again. "But they wouldn't have done anything and Bonnie needed someone to protect her!"

Mrs. Gilbert shook her head. "If that was the only way you could protect her in that situation than you should have protected her from yourselves. Look where you are now."

"You're in a worse situation than what started it and even got the victim in trouble," Deputy Forbes said. "AND you're in more trouble than the girls who said those nasty things. That's not how we help our friends."

"Sheriff is right. In that situation you call us. Not just Elena and Caroline, but you too Bonnie. We are here to protect you just like we protect them because we love you. We don't want to see you cry."

Mrs. Gilbert wiped a trail of tears from Bonnie's round cheeks. "We want to see you happy. But we also want you to be better than people who have to put others down so they can be happy. Okay?"

"Okay," the girls said solemnly.

"I'm sorry they said those things Bonnie. You know none of that is true, right?" Bonnie looked down but Mrs. Gilbert hooked a finger under her chin. "I bet any party you throw will be spectacular. And having a mother isn't a requirement for any of those things, even though you have one."

Bonnie wanted to say, "My mother isn't here. I don't know where she is," but the principal's door opened and three sets of mother and daughters walked out of the room: Susan with head mean girl Taylor, Miranda and Maybel, ans Shannon with Silvia.

Deputy Forbes squared her shoulders as they walked by and Mrs. Gilbert cleaned Bonnie's face.

"Remember what Sheila says. Don't ever let them see you cry," she reminded her.

"That's how they beat you," Bonnie recited back.

The first mother clacked her tongue and flipped her bleach blonde hair. "Oh, good, you're here deputy. Nothing like corporal punishment to teach criminals the error of their ways."

Caroline's mother rested her hands on her gun belt. "I don't think that's necessary, Susan."

"Your criminals accosted our girls!" Susan pointed a finger with french tip nails accusingly at Bonnie, Caroline, and Elena.

"Your girls are heinous pigs!" Caroline insulted.

The deputy raised a silencing hand, "Caroline, let me handle this. Although Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie were wrong for throwing the first punch, the real culprit is the cruel lies your daughters were spreading."

"Our daughters don't lie."

"Do you know what they said?" Mrs. Gilbert asked in disbelief.

Susan sneered nastily. "Like I said, our daughters don't lie."

"Just like your husbands?" Deputy Forbes asked. "How's court going for Richard, Shannon? And I'm sure Spencer is really appreciating the small town life with his…you know."

"He must be thankful everything is so close now that he has to walk so much. The exercise must be a godsend for him. Speaking of health…how's the rash, Miranda?" Mrs. Gilbert asked.

Each woman's mouth puckered so tightly they threatened to swallow their lips. They latched onto their daughters' hands and, with a pompous huff, ran off with their tails between their freshly waxed legs.

"That was awesome," Caroline said in awe.

The door to the principal's office opened once again, and Mystic Elementary's Daniel Shaefford stood with his hands on his widening hips.

"Deputy Forbes," he started. His gray-blue eyes moved to Elena's mother. "Mrs. Gilbert." His eyes dropped to Bonnie. "And…Miss Bennett. Your mother couldn't come today?"

"Her mother is accounted for, sir."

"Who might she be and where might we find her?"

"It's us and right in front of you."

He frowned deeply. "Well come on in," he resigned.

* * *

Heavy splatters of rain against the dorm window that sounded closer to hail woke Bonnie. She lied still underneath her duvet with her eyes closed until three chipper knocks resounded from the door.

Bonnie didn't move. Who could it be? Caroline and Damon would just walk in. Maybe it was Matt...but he would have called or at least texted. A firmer knock interrupted Bonnie's thoughts.

"I know you're in there Miss Bennett," a voice with a flagrant accent drawled from the other side of the door. "I have a special delivery."

Bonnie wrinkled her nose and damned vampire hearing. "Go away, Enzo," she griped.

He knocked again instead- slow, forceful taps on the thick wooden door. Bonnie inhaled sharply, heart protesting as she threw back her covers and slid out of bed.

She dragged her feet to Damon's now vacant side of the room and swiped his forgotten robe off of the bed. She shrugged it on, covering the simple tank and short pajama set she always wore to bed. The hem of the black robe trailed along the cold floor, pushing a sealed envelope with Bonnie's name underneath the bed.

"Bonnie~," Enzo called.

Said witch swung the door open. Enzo stood at the doorway with hands folded behind his back and a sly smile spreading across his face. "Good morning," he greeted.

Bonnie's brow furrowed. "Is it?"

"What has you waking up on the wrong side of the bed?" Enzo asked, eyebrows raised.

"Maybe it's you," Bonnie said curtly.

Enzo cocked his head to the side. "Then allow me to make it better." He brought his right hand forward. A browned envelope waggled in the air before Bonnie's eyes. "Your delivery."

"What is it?" Bonnie asked as she reached for it. Enzo quickly pulled it away from her reach.

"What you've been trying so hard to obtain. The key to Lily's plans." He held it out for Bonnie again.

"Why are you giving this to me?" She reached for it and Enzo moved it away again.

"Because I trust you." He held it out for a third time.

Bonnie made no movement to take it. "That's ironic."

"Perhaps under the present circumstances." He stepped closer to her. "But I know you, Bonnie. I know how you love."

Bonnie almost leaned away from him, but she never could back away from a challenge. He towered over her, but not as a threat. As a friend. As a new partner.

He took her left hand with his left hand and pressed the envelop into her palm. Her fingers curled around the paper.

"I think you are deserving of loyalty...and not only my own," Enzo whispered. "Can you trust that? Can you trust me?"

Bonnie stared into Enzo's dark brown eyes that usually held so many secrets of his past. Today he left the windows to his soul open and Bonnie could see his honesty; she could see the pain he tried to hide away.

Bonnie pulled her hand away from his. "Do you want to come in?"

Enzo bowed slightly and Bonnie stepped out of the way. His Oxfords echoed of the floor as he walked into the heart of the room. "Did I make your morning a bit better than?"

"My morning is fine, Enzo."

He turned languidly on his heel. "Once again, I know you Bonnie. Something is bothering you. What is it?"

She didn't give in easily, but something made her cave. Bonnie sighed. "I wanted to have a birthday party when I was 10. These...baby bitches were saying all this crap about me not having a mom."

"Where was your mother?"

"I don't know." She waved her hand around flippantly. "She ran off before I turned five. Anyways, Elena threw a punch and it was a brawl from there. Caroline, Elena, and I ended up at the principal's office. Their moms showed up...mine didn't. For a moment I thought...maybe what they said was true."

Bonnie looked past Enzo, past the window and to the falling rain. "Maybe I was worse off without a mother and maybe no one would want me because I didn't have a mother- because even my own mother didn't want me. But then Elena and Caroline's moms stood up for me." She smiled softly.

"They called me their daughter and they always took care of me. They helped me throw my party. I didn't need Abby- my mother. I was already loved. I was loved." But for some reason the sadness stayed.

Enzo studied her curiously. "So what's wrong?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I can't stop thinking about the feeling of being left behind. I don't know why. It's..."

"Uncomfortable?"

Bonnie tightened the oversized robe around her. Enzo looked away. "Where's our dear Damon?" he queried.

"He had to move out when Caroline moved back in," she answered and dropped onto her bed.

"Are you missing him?"

"Ha!" Bonnie barked. "Damon doesn't give time for people to miss him. He always shows back up." She tapped the envelope against her hand before opening it and removed an aged letter with crimson ink scribbled across three pages.

 _My felicitous love,_ it read,

 _How I yearn to feel your touch against my skin once more. My heart has grown untenable to the cold in your absence, as if to mimic the winter that stills the life of the woods._

Bonnie stopped reading. "What is this?"

"Keep reading."

 _I long for the day we can be together and I can finally escape this cursed estate. Giuseppe wields a strong rod against all who cross him still- family and enemy alike. He knows unhappiness courses through me and punishes me every day that I breathe through our sons- most so through Damon, to whose misery is brought on due to his resemblance of me._

Bonnie glanced at Enzo incredulously. "A love letter from Lily Salvatore? This is the key to her dastardly deeds?"

"You really are missing Damon," he said blinking coolly.

"Shut up."

 _I can see the blame in Damon's eyes whenever he looks at me. The bed time stories of old no longer sway favor toward me. He hates me, my love, and in turn I grow to hate him._

 _I pray for your hasty return. To be with a like mind who understands how to survive with more than mere life- for this life is mere..._

 _I want nothing more than for us to be together. If not in life, than in death. I will wed the night to be with you. I will follow you anywhere- forever. And if God stole you, damning you away from me for eternity, I would break hell to be together again._

Damon resembled Lily in more than just looks. Bonnie imagined these to be the verbal track of his inner psyche. She folded the letter up without finishing.

"What does this mean, Enzo?"

He clapped his hands as if to signal the beginning of his presentation. "The lover Lily writes to is named Julian. Shortly after that letter was written he returned to the Salvatore estate and turned Lily before they scampered off to god knows where. In their travels they started a makeshift family of witches from specific bloodlines- witches that, if turned, would still possess the craft."

"The Heretics."

Enzo nodded. "Now, Julian was not so unlike Giusieppe Salvatore- he ruled with a bloodied fist and a bloodied mouth. The care he showed his "family" did not cross a strict line and his wrath- his simple displeasure- meant misfortune for whoever he viewed as outsiders. Empathy, sympathy or whatever escaped him as soon as usefulness expired."

"So where is Julian now?"

He held up a single finger. "The heretic family grew quite large," he informed her. "Too large to avoid the attention of traditional witches. These witches were very wealthy and very powerful. They created an entity- a hunter with an eternal soul; her weapon an armory. Add in a very large jail in a very large building and also in a very small stone: the phoenix stone."

"The point, finally?"

"Julian is in the phoenix stone. Trapped, like Lily in the Gemini verse, with three fourths of the Heretic family all created in the image of their vampire parents. No, the others are not as controllable as the lot hogging Mystic Falls. They're brutal and selfish and willing to do whatever they can to get what they want. Lily means to destroy the stone and set them all free."

"She really will break hell for him..." Bonnie muttered. "What will they do when they're free?"

"I don't know, but I'm willing to bet you don't want to find out," Enzo answered ominously.

* * *

 **Next chapter...time skip! The return of Damon from his 3 year nap.**

 **Until next time readers xoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	5. The Dagger

**Hello readers...I'm back with another chapter! I hadn't planned on updating so soon, but I've got the Bamon blues. I think I'll make this chapter a bit longer than usual.**

 **Hmmmm...this chapter has a bit of action.**

* * *

Four pairs of feet dropped into a quivering rain puddle, splashing the dark moonlit water into the surrounding foliage and silencing the chirping crickets. Bonnie, Stefan, Enzo, and Caroline ducked beneath the broken branches of a towering tree and waited for anyone or anything to come creeping through the heavy forest.

Clouds crossed the moon and the crickets began to chirp noisily once again. Stefan gave a quick nod signaling the group to move. The four sped to the left as quietly as possible, disappearing in the overgrown grass.

The clouds cleared and the world was dipped in lunar glow once more, but not the trespassing troupe. Cloaked in all black, the light seemed to pass through them as they moved closer to the edge of the wood, making it almost impossible to see them if it were not for the shifting grass.

They kept running and broke into the clearing. It was acres wide and blooming with ardent wildflowers that looked like dancing flames in the wind. Postured in the middle of the blaze was a castle nearly completely destroyed by time or...much more likely, something else.

It's once grand front gate laid in stone piles and shambled wrought-iron that were bent beyond repair and poking toward the sky like devil spikes. Half of the castle- around the size of the Salvatore mansion- was completely destroyed and the other half had already been claimed by nature. Still the group raced forward purposefully.

Bonnie led the way past the crumbled stone fence and around the ruined half of the castle before stopping underneath a fallen cathedral. Stefan, Enzo, and Caroline fanned out behind her to cover her. Bonnie's chin dropped to her chest before jerking up again so she stared wide eyed into the sky.

Like a beacon, she attracted _all_ of the moonlight to her as if she were about to be beamed up into the heavens. The white light singed the grass beneath her hiking boots and the magic disturbed the clearing with a wild, high wind. The flowers shook on their stems and their petals became sparks in the sky.

And then suddenly the sparks were the only source of light in the wood. The moon went black like a spontaneous new moon. The crickets stalled in their own confusion- no, they could feel the magic too as it coursed underneath them through the dirt and bones of the ground.

The glowing sigil blazed up to swallow the floor under Bonnie like a sinkhole, but she did not fall. The moon turned back on and a black marble staircase revealed itself in the gaping hole. The sound of unsettled dirt echoed up from the deep staircase. Bonnie took a deep breath as she came to and dropped a few inches to the first step as she stopped levitating.

The others quickly rejoined her and, with only a second of hesitation, they began their descent. The first flight was an uneventful dirt walk, but halfway through the second flight Dragon's Breath stone blinked alive from the mouths and pregnant bellies of carved goddesses that hung from black marble walls.

The violet and flame gems gleamed from their eyes like vigilant watchers, waiting for any misstep. The trespassers reached an end of the stairs and an entrance. Iridescent doors hummed in a dirt frame.

A large globe of Dragon's Breath was encased in the sublime double door. Five sharp prongs stuck out of the stone. Enzo stepped forward, pulled the glove of his right hand off, and placed his hand on the globe. The prongs stabbed into his fingers and drank his blood. The sphere burned and the earth began to move again; the ground sealed itself, the door creaked open, and the orb turned black.

The group finally removed their masks off their heads and tucked them away. Caroline gave a spirited sigh and said, "So far so good?"

Bonnie nodded and rubbed Enzo's arm sympathetically. "Thanks, babe."

He bowed slightly. "Well then, shall we proceed?"

"Yeah, but can we get a little light in here?" Caroline requested.

"On it."Bonnie blinked and the chandeliers hanging inside the door were lit with yellow flames.

"The map?" Stefan asked.

Enzo held out his right hand and the others gathered around it. Bonnie whispered a spell under her breath. The same sigil that marked the ground now marked Enzo's palm; it encased his hand in a globe of flickering lights marking rooms of several levels of an underground building.

"So this is The Armory," Stefan mused as he studied the blueprints.

"Witches' shop of horrors," Bonnie joked. "Virginia said the Phoenix Dagger was in the north wing..."

Caroline pointed it out at the same time as Stefan. "There," they both said.

Bonnie's finger joined the fray. "And we are here. So if we go down this hallway, make a left, stay to the right, and make it around that corner...we'll get there."

"I love a good excavation," Enzo remarked. He started walking and the others followed.

"This is straight up robbery," Bonnie corrected. She walked on Enzo's right with Caroline behind her and Stefan behind Enzo.

"Technically there's not much of a difference," Stefan pointed out.

They froze when a clank rang through The Armory. The noise faded away.

"Well I'm sure any night out is good for you, Bonnie, after all that time in the mental health hospital," Caroline whispered. They started moving again.

"The late night chats with Virginia weren't so bad," the witch said. Enzo snorted. "She really knew how to paint a picture."

"How so?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie recalled a particular late night idea exchange with her institutionalized roommate. "She said if we're not careful, the voices of ghosts will fill our ears until our brains leak from our eyes and we swallow our tongue."

"Do you think that...that can actually happen to us?" Caroline wondered.

Bonnie shrugged. "I'd say it's a very real possibility."

They made a left and found themselves in a large rectangular room with coiling floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Fireflies floated through the air, lighting up the room just enough to catch glimpses of book titles and author names.

A fork in the path sent them to the right and past cabinets of curiosities holding strange and mysterious trinkets.

"Don't touch anything," Bonnie reminded Caroline. She pulled her hand away guiltily.

They continued onward through aisles of extravagant drapery and broken weapons of unknown country and origin. The weight of magic and unrest slithered around their ankles as they walked. They turned a corner and reached another double door with a Dragon's Breath orb embedded in it.

"This is it," Enzo announced. He placed his hand on the orb and it drained his blood. The seal broke and the door spread open.

Darkness exited the room and licked out the light.

"B-Bonnie?" Caroline called out.

"I'm trying..." Bonnie concentrated harder, trying to bring the candles back to life. Several floating violet lights awakened in the far corner of the room and then a fireplace that took up an entire wall flared to life. The team jumped back, blinded by the great light. Bonnie rubbed her eyes before taking a good look at the room.

"Now this- this is an armory," Enzo said.

The vault was stacked and packed with weapons- swords, axes, shields, spears- too giant for a regular human to hold. They were still in perfect condition despite the layers of cobwebs curtaining them.

"I don't care for the weapons, but I wouldn't mind _that_ on my front lawn. In my face and not pregnant." Caroline pointed to the marble statue of an armored goddess. The grandiosely carved armor did not cover her stomach where a Dragon's Breath stone the size of a pumpkin stayed. Four more stones rested in the statue's eyes, mouth, and heart shining ominously.

Spirits whispered beyond Bonnie's ears coaxing her forward. She took the first step inside and the flames roared. Enzo stopped her but she shrugged him off.

"It's okay," she assured him. Her stride became confident as she moved closer to the statue. Enzo tried to follow her, but the distance grew between them as if Enzo stood still.

"Let's split up and look for the Phoenix Blade," Stefan suggested. "I'll start in the northeast corner."

"No need, Stefan," Enzo replied. "We were told pursuers of the dagger would never be able to reach its hiding place. No matter how long they searched, there would always be more than a door to keep them away. But Bonnie knows."

"How does Bonnie know?"

"Bonnie always knows," Caroline said in proud disbelief.

Said witch reached the statue and touched the belly stone gently. The red orange hues of the stone gathered around her fingertips.

Enzo watched in anticipation. "It's in the blood."

Bonnie's fingers slid into the stone like it was water and when she pulled it out she was holding a 12" dagger with the stone of The Armory pulsing on the bottom of the hilt. The blade mirrored the doors that reflected all colors making it breathtakingly beautiful.

 ** _"It's an instrument to kill to save," Virginia praised. She sat up on the spring mattress of her bed gazing wondrously at nothing. Auburn wisps of hair stood on end around her head. "My mother showed me. It sparkles like the crystal water in the Valley of Eloire. Like the sun in winter and the moon in summer. The colors dance, Bonnie!"_**

 ** _She sprang up and twirled around the room. "I love to dance in the springtime! The violets burn white when the moon sings. We always use candles because it's always night. All of my grandmothers and aunts and sisters live there. They protect it like the babies in their wombs."_ **

**_"I would love to visit," Bonnie said. She sat cross legged on her twin bed and watched Virginia closely.  
_**

 ** _"There's only one way to get to grandmothers' house. Grandmother Flora hates company."_**

 ** _"Let's go together," Bonnie encouraged._**

 ** _Virginia froze, cradling her bad hand she kept wrapped in bandages. Her eyes shifted back and forth, back and forth between the ceiling and Bonnie._**

 ** _"Together?" she asked in a conspiratorial whisper. "We can go together?"_**

 ** _Bonnie nodded. Virginia giggled manically. "To grandmothers' house? To the tomb? We can go to the tomb?"_**

 ** _Her blue-green eyes widened. Bonnie's heart sank as she guessed what would come next. Virginia's mouth fell open; her voice quivered up her throat and clawed it's way off her tongue in a shrill scream._**

 ** _"My hand! My hand! It burns!"_**

 ** _Two burly wards rushed into the room in less than a minute to sedate Virginia into sleep. She screamed bloody murder as they dragged her onto her bed and strapped her down. Mr. Sleepy Needle pierced her left arm and she eased into drugged numbness._**

 ** _"Get some sleep, Virginia," one of the wards said tiredly. The two trudged out without one look at Bonnie, slamming the door behind them._**

 ** _Bonnie crawled out of her bed and sat by Virginia to hold her hand. Virginia's muscles twitched into forced rest. She tried to keep her eyes open for as long as possible._**

 _ **"She keeps- she keeps her child close. The f-f-f-fire protects them. The...fire...in...stone...safe..." her voice trailed and her eyes closed, but her grip on Bonnie's hand held firm.**  
_

"Bonnie!"

Enzo gripped her arm tightly. They were back outside, out of grandmothers' house, in the woods again. When had they...?

Figures came from behind the green with a fresh scent of blood reeking off of them.

"I knew you could do it, Bonnie," one of them called out. The man distinguished himself from the shadows. A cocky smirk matched his swaggering stride. He combed his blonde hair back with his fingers before offering Bonnie a round of applause. "There's no witch like a Bennett."

"When will your stalking end, Julian?" Enzo barked. "You've chased us nearly half around the world already."

"For her? I'd chase her around the galaxy to get what I want. But you? I would have left you to die of consumption."

"I won't let you turn me," Bonnie told him coldly. "I'm not interested!"

Julian laughed heartily. "Why do you still think that matters? _I'm interested!_ It's as simple as that. Now," he said, waving a hand to motion her to him, "come to me before I have to hurt your friends. Even Lily's special Stefan."

The dagger's pulse quickened to the same beat as Bonnie's. She could hear it crying to the stone that lamented the escape of Julian and his pet heretics. Bonnie frowned and shifted away from Enzo's grasp.

"Don't threaten them," Bonnie warned. "Or I won't bother putting you back in the stone."

Julian pursed his lips. "My heretics will bring you to me."

"They can try. But it's been three years, Julian, and they haven't brought me yet." She pointed the blade at the heretic to Julian's left. "The fire will protect me."

The heretic, a near clone of Julian, laughed. And then he burst into flames. Stefan, Enzo, Caroline immediately sped off into action as their foes floundered in surprise.

Enzo ripped the heart of one out easily while Stefan and Caroline tag teamed the biggest one. He stood at 7' with fangs as long as a pinky finger. Caroline distracted him with a flurry of flips and cartwheels until Stefan bludgeoned the back of his head with a small tree.

Bonnie jumped out of the way of a flying boulder and whipped around to stab another heretic in the chest. The dagger sang as it siphoned the magic, blood, and soul from the monster. Bonnie kicked the carcass away and dodged a bolt of lightning.

Someone yanked her ponytail loose. She tumbled forward and turned around in time for blood to splatter across her face. Enzo threw the body in the opposite direction of its head and pulled Bonnie to her feet. He tossed her in the air like a spinning top. Fire framed a group of heretics flinging spells at Caroline and Stefan and Bonnie descended on them mercilessly.

She could sense the vampires in a way she never could before. Their blood wafted through the air and the blade would follow the nearest scent of them. Every fallen body was a crack hit for the Phoenix Dagger, the far away Phoenix Stone, and- most importantly- Bonnie. Fire roared in her ears; she could feel power on the edges of her fingernails. A mission drove her- a mission the dagger desperately wanted her to achieve.

Someone spelled a log in Bonnie's pathway and she fell hard to the floor. She flipped onto her back just in time to send the dagger through Stefan's arm and into the heart of the heretic that had jumped on her first. It began to drain the both of them like the impatient hands of time.

* * *

 **Three Months Later**

He had lost track of time pretty early in. Soon after that, his nose got an itch. It was an itch he couldn't scratch, of course, and he felt like that was his life in a nutshell. Eventually, he lost track of that too.

Now, he floated in a dry sea of thought. A desert of memories. Not 100 years worth, not even 50. Maybe 5 years. Maybe even 1. If his cracked lips could move it'd probably be a smile. Something dribbled into his mouth and down his parched throat. He felt his organs come back to life and his heart managed a heavy beat.

He lurched forward, begging his heart to beat one more time. It beat on and on and he was alive. But-

"Damon!" Stefan shouted. He shook Damon's shoulders. "I need your help-"

"Wha-"

"But first we have to get out of here!"

Damon heard the click and reflexes kicked in instantly. He tackled Stefan to the ground as a glittering arrow embedded itself into the black cloth interior of Damon's coffin. They skidded across the linoleum floor of the warehouse and crashed into a shelf. There was another click and Damon rolled he and his brother in another direction, but he was too slow. The arrow dug into Stefan's left calf, sizzling and smoking.

"Fuck," the brothers growled.

"What the hell, Stefan?" Damon demanded.

"Flank her! We only needed to stall 14 more seconds," Stefan gasped.

"Your leg!"

Stefan pushed Damon away. "Do it- quickly!"

Damon grimaced and disappeared in a blur. Stefan's soon-to-be-murderer unsheathed her...rainbow blade? Damon grabbed a thick wooden plank from a rubbish pile. The person- the woman- was shorter than 5'5". She raised the dagger.

" _Incendia._ " Set aflame, the dagger resembled burning diamonds. Damon didn't take any time to stare in awe. He swung the wooden block hard enough to break through a wall.

"No!" Stefan cried.

For what? Damon wondered. Did he know this woman? he questioned. The voice did sound familiar...

The woman turned and he met her eyes; they were the color of the moss that had taken over the Salvatore crypt. It was too late to stop his swing-

The blade split the plank in half and Damon quickly retreated.

"Bonnie," he breathed.

It was Bonnie. She was standing in front of him! She was alive! And despite her current murderous intentions, Damon was excited to see her, and that emotion quickly turned to nervous.

"Damon..." she gasped. Her arm wound back to point the dagger at Stefan. "I'm sorry."

"NO!" Damon shouted and he rushed forward. Bonnie's eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body went limp. The dagger dropped out of her hand and she followed it on the way to the floor. The dagger clattered noisily on the ground and Bonnie dropped into Damon's arms.

Stefan sighed loudly. "Fuck, that was close..."

"How long have I-?"

"Three years," Stefan answered. He hissed when the arrow in his leg burned his hand.

Damon studied Bonnie's slumbering face in confusion. "What did you do to her?"

" _I_ didn't do anything to her. It was our mother's boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

"A vampire named Julian. Blonde, foreign, bastard."

Cogs in Damon's mind turned in his head. "Julian...I know that name- mother had all of these letters hidden in her drawer. I was helping Miss Maybel empty the drawers one day for spring cleaning- I found them. Father walked in. He beat me first for helping the slaves and then he beat me again after he read the letters," Damon recalled bitterly.

He brushed Bonnie's hair away from her mouth and his hand lingered on her heated cheek. "What did he do to her?"

"It's a long story."

Damon snapped, "I told you to watch out for her, Stefan!"

"You should have been here to do that!" Stefan shot back. He took a calming breath and wrapped his hand around the arrow shaft. He gritted his teeth and yanked the arrow out. "She wasn't around much to be protected anyways."

"What does that mean?"

"She fled the country three months after you decided to coffin yourself and was gone for two years. _Then_ she spent six months in a mental health hospital to get information from a patient."

Damon blinked rapidly, trying to decide which direction to point his questions. "You never answered what's wrong with Bonnie."

Stefan pulled himself to his feet and limped toward Damon. He used a cloth to put the dagger back in its sheath. "This dagger and its partner stone- they're possessing her. Turning her into a heretic killing machine. I was just unlucky enough to get marked when I was trying to save her."

Stefan rested his weight on his left foot to test his injury. "So there you go, Damon. You told me to protect her while you hid away...and now you might lose both of us."

Damon stared up at Stefan wordlessly. He felt a lot like there was an itch somewhere on his body he was too weak to scratch.

* * *

 **I guess this is more of an awakening than a return for Damon. I just love all story lines having to do with Bonnie kicking everyone's ass.**

 **Thanks readers! Until next chapter xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


End file.
